


Closed door

by Viviena



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Emissary Stiles Stilinski, Established Relationship, M/M, McCall Pack, Past Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2515529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viviena/pseuds/Viviena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is an emissary in Scott's pack. Neighbor pack asks their help in a conflict with hunters, but they are not in an exactly peaceful terms with McCall pack either. <br/>Derek doesn't like what Stiles becomes when he is with Peter, but he have lost his chance to do a thing with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closed door

**Author's Note:**

> Not betaed and English is still not my mother tongue so probably lotta mistakes. Any help is welcomed. =)

“What are we going to do with Judith’ pack?” Derek finally asks when it becomes clear, that no one else is going to. 

Scott gives him a dirty look, like Derek mentioning it out loud makes the problem more real, as if it was not real enough. 

Malia chilling in the armchair perks up and bares her teeth. Well at least she’s not growling. It is almost two years since Stiles stopped pointing out it was a progress. Liam shivers and Lydia rolls her eyes, but all of them stay silent. 

“They are having some serious problems with the hunters,” Scott says with a sigh, even though technically all of them know that already. Text message came just before the meeting started and the only person who missed it was Kira, since she was having her ultrasound today. “We had our issues in the past, but they are our closest neighbors and… we also had a thing with hunters. Maybe we should help. What are we going to do?”

The pause goes on and on. Derek shifts his shoulders impatiently and clears his throat. Twice. 

“No-thi-ng,” Stiles singnsongs, sprawled in the other armchair. He has one leg hanging from the armrest, his other one taps irregular rhythms on the floor. “We are not going to do a thing.” 

He clicks something on his phone distracted, before turning to the pack. Scott looks at him with pleading eyes, something like tell-me-we-can-sit-this-down clearly on his face. Derek takes a moment to suppress his annoyance. Stiles hardly needs any persuasion, when his alpha is like that. 

“Judith is a sick bitch,” Stiles points out, shrugging. “She tried to kill us and take over our territory.” 

“But we have a treaty. There are rules,” Derek reminds. 

Stiles just smirks at him kind of patronizingly. Like he is looking down on Derek, even though Derek is the only person, who is left standing in the loft. There are not many things in the world more annoying than that look. Especially when it’s followed with a loud chuckle from the shadows of a spiral staircase, where Peter resides on his perch. 

“Only because we were stronger and Scott let her go in his all time overgenerous manner. And take the book with her, by the way,” Stiles wrinkles his nose in distaste. He was deeply wounded by the fact, that for the first time since he officially became an emissary, there was a moment, when he couldn’t evenly oppose someone else’s magic. Considering that Judith was a lousy alpha and even lousier witch, when Stiles has managed to earn a pretty serious reputation before he even reached twenty-two, the real deal was that ancient-as-fuck-by-the-look-of-it tome, that alpha always carried with her. It apparently contained some kind of sorcery lore and particularly rare enchantments, accessible for werewolves, even though they could not use this kind of powers usually. 

Stiles purses his lips and adds in a meaningful tone, “She has got herself two new betas since then”.

Derek feels stunned, but noticing dumbstruck faces of the rest, can tell that, he is at least not the only one who was unaware. 

“How do you know that?” he asks scowling. Stiles lifts his eyebrows and shrugs with one shoulder ambiguously. 

“It’s my thing, to know stuff. Being emissary and all that jazz, remember? And I’m willing to make an educated guess, that this is the very reason, why those hunters put her in the black list.” 

“Who got bitten?” Scott asks and Derek catches himself nodding approvingly. Stiles gives them both a flat look, though. 

“Have no idea. Does it matter?” 

“What if it’s teenagers? Kids?” Derek asks with a growl and winces. No one is looking at him, but he gets it loud and clear from their faces. Something like: oh, Derek remembered what a shitty alpha he was and feels bad for the enemy now. And it is not true; it’s not about that at all. Even if this whole meeting goes on like eight feet away from the spot where Boyd has died and it still sends chills down Derek’s spine sometimes. 

“Derek is right,” Scott says suddenly and it’s probably one of the most uncommon phrases to use in this pack. He looks at Stiles and shrugs apologetically, but then glances at Liam, who is practically his younger brother at this point. “We can’t just leave whomever she bit in all this mess. Especially, if they are kids”. 

“Why on earth you keep repeating this bullshit about the kids!?” Stiles stands up in one jerky motion and continues with animated gestures of both hands. “Remember who we are talking about? Judith! Bloodthirsty bitch. Why the fuck would she bite kids? She is building a pack, all her betas are clone-like buff men past thirty of a very distinct type. I was about to make a dirty joke in here, but we are talking serious business and stuff.” 

There is another loud chuckle from Peter’s corner and Derek can barely stop himself from throwing something heavy in that direction. 

Thank goodness Peter stays silent, but Derek doesn’t really need werewolf senses to know, how his hungry eyes stay stuck to Stiles’ moving hands and lips all this time. Everyone is grateful for the lack of blatant PDA from them during pack meetings. It is one thing to know about them and very different one to see it in action. Considering how most of them are getting more than enough with a smell alone. 

Derek grinds his teeth, feeling Peter’s smirk with a back of his head, and tries to listen to Stiles’ words. 

“New betas and the book combined… we might not make it next time. While the hunters want to make all the dirty work for us! Liam barely survived that spell last time, and we still have no clue what that was. Internet and Deaton have nothing.” 

“Nothing in Bestiary too,” Lydia adds, pursing her lips. Stiles makes exaggerated bow to her, but she just observes him with a long calculated look, and with a quick glance to the staircase shadows, resumes. “We need that book or at least a guaranty that it will not be used against us. The hunters will either kill them, or weaken them considerably. Whichever, we benefit from it.” 

Scott scrunches his face, but Stiles continues talking not giving him a chance to interfere. 

“Starting another war with the hunters knowing how Judith can stab our back anytime? Now, when Kira is about to go in labor? If anything happens to her or the baby, you know you will loose it Scott. We can’t afford it” Scott freezes in horror as it happens every time he has a though about loosing Kira. Stiles continues, rising his voice a bit. “All these years we have barely survived, because our reactions were always late. It’s time to learn to be a step ahead. We have lost enough. Now it’s only their time to loose.” 

A shadow covers Scott’s face, as always when he remembers Allison. Stiles is very aware of all his weak spots and never hesitates to use them these days. Derek is about to intervene, but Stiles carries on, looking him in the eyes. 

“Derek, you were incompetent alpha. Judith is no better, but it doesn’t mean, that you are the same. Erika and Boyd were… part of the price we paid to get that lesson. You paid. Was it not enough?”

Scott’s weaknesses are not the only ones Stiles is aware of. Derek stays dead silent, not ready for a blow like that in a regular argument. Stiles has changed through the years; he was rougher, sharper, more confident now. But he used to be the one to drag Derek out of every dark corner he backed himself into, and it was a sick and bizarre feeling to be on the receiving end of his blows rather then his help. It’s not like Derek had a right to expect any special treatment. If Stiles is willing to apply such pressure to Scott, his best friend, his alpha, his brother basically, what can be said about Derek, who was… nobody. For the lack of a better term. Enemy, friend, lover, none of those really worked out, and all of it is long gone anyways. An ally? Derek is using that word for Judith, who tried to tear out his spleen. Repeatedly. He can’t really put Stiles in the same category with her.

“If you are so worried, that those new betas are kids, or something, why not just figure it out?” Malia asks in her usual a bit puzzled tone. She seams to miss the moment of awkward silence she interrupted. “I can drive to Redding on a weekend and check it out?” 

“That’s a brilliant idea,” Stiles nods and Malia is all but glows with his praise. Derek wrinkles his nose, remembering that she is also Hale, and has her own unhealthy fixation on Stiles. Sometimes he thinks of it as just another family curse. 

The discussion dies out quickly after that, everyone is okay with the new plan. Scott excuses himself first, as he needs to pick up Kira from her ultrasound appointment. Others follow him out gradually. 

Derek turns his back to them, watching the night city view from his huge window instead. So many years, and his words still weight nothing to Scott. Derek only starts realizing, that it will probably always be like that. They were ready to trust hunters, Stiles insisted the more victims the better, Stiles lives happily ever after with Peter for almost two years now. When did Derek fall asleep, and got into this wicked nightmare? 

Buried deep inside his gloomy thoughts, Derek misses the fact, that he is left alone with Stiles, until he steps closer to share the view. 

“Who could have though, that you will end up a pacifist,” Stiles snorts, bumping Derek’s shoulder with his own. 

“It’s not that. Even during out last clash with Judith no one got seriously hurt. Liam was stupid and reckless, and still got on his feet in just two days. We don’t know weather she asked her new betas for consent, most probably she seduced them just as the previous ones. Maybe they feel confused or tricked, but she gave them a bite. The bite is a gift. To slaughter them for this… it’s wrong. Werewolves have to stay together against a common enemy. I don’t trust them, but I don’t trust hunters more.” 

“God forbid you to trust anyone,” Stiles smirks with something bitter in his voice. 

“Stiles…”

“I have listened to you Derek. I have listened and I have heard. But I’m still human, and I still think those werewolves are a bigger threat right now. Do you really think that Judith would leave that easily?”

Derek pauses for a moment, but he knows the answer. 

“No.”

“Stayed in Redding?” 

“No.”

“Stopped making new betas?”

“What are you trying to…“

“Just answer me!”

“No.”

“You think she would rather make a pack twice our size and attack us in a moment of weakness?”

“Yes.”

“And you still think I’m overreacting, tying to prevent it?”

“You judge her for what she is only about to do. And not only her, but the whole pack!”

“Because it is not my pack!” Stiles snarls suddenly. 

Human or not, he picked a lot of mannerism from them. This new Stiles had little to do with a witty easygoing schoolboy Derek met in the forest for the first time, or that pale sickly shadow he become after Nogitsune, when they woke up in a same bed ones. And kept waking up, not finding words for before, after and what to call the in-betweens, till there was no need for any words at all, because there was nothing left. 

“But this one is mine,” Stiles continues with the same sharp edge. “And I’m not loosing anything that is mine again. If I have a chance to get this book and their dead bodies, before we shred a drop of our blood, then I’m doing exactly that. I would slash their throats in their sleep, if I need too.” 

Stiles speaks lightly and corners of his lips keep tugging to the sides, but he is serious, heartbeat honest and even. 

Derek is silent for a moment, not finding any words for a confession like that. On one side there is Stiles – son of the sheriff, the one who saved people, saved Derek long before they were even close to being allies. Such things are alien, coming from his mouth. On the other side, though. It appeals to something dark and instinctive in Derek’s soul. Something like respect for someone, who puts his pack higher than his own morals. Suddenly there is a twist of unwanted arousal in a jumble of his emotions. 

“You don’t need to slash any throats,” Derek finally rasps. 

“Of course not. The hunters will do it for me.”

“But that’s not your fault, not your responsibility,” Derek insists. Stiles keeps smiling cautiously, looking in his eyes. Derek swallows. “Is it? How those hunters even found her in the first place?” 

“I called Isaac to wish him a Happy Birthday,” Stiles says and Derek is confused, from a rapid change of topic. 

“What?”

“No worries, I passed your wishes too. I know you forgot.”

“How does it… ”

“I could have mentioned, we had some major troubles with Judith recently,” Stiles chuckles and looks at Derek expectantly, waiting for him to figure it out.

“Isaac is still with Argent,” Derek starts puzzling it together. 

“Ew, you said that like they are together. That would be incest, considering how they keep playing in a happy family.”

“Argent got his men to hunt Judith.”

“Well, not exactly his. He just passed the message about her violating the Code to the other families.”

“The Code! When hunters cared about the Code?” Derek growls. 

“Derek, stop being such a drama queen” Stiles sighs and rolls his eyes. His tone and gesture both are so Peter, that it feels like a slap. This thought tugs on another, and Derek feels as if he took off a blindfold. 

“Stiles it’s not you. You would have never suggested such a thing.” 

“Oh really? Do you have a slightest idea, how many times I asked Scott to kill you during that first year? For me, please!” Stiles bats his eyelashes comically, in parody on himself. But Derek is already rethinking this whole situation from a new perspective, and finds new and new facts proving his point. 

“It’s Peter! He-” Derek feels like he finally can see what is going on. He turns to Stiles and grabs his shoulders. “Stiles, he wants that book. He got inside your head, and you are doing all this just because he wants you to!”

Stiles smile is slow and lacks any warmth. 

“Five points to Gryffindor for trying, but ten points cut for missing it altogether. That book is the only important element in this whole conflict, you’re right. I admit I’m impressed that you even got it,” Stiles averts his eyes and licks his lips. “But it’s not Peter who wants it. It’s me.”

Derek tightens his grip and shakes him a little, but his hands are instantly burned with such intensity, like if he grabbed a handful of wolfsbane. Stiles adjusts his wrinkled hoody and gives him a warning look, but then he sighs and reaches out himself. His hand cares a side of Derek’s face and he’s not smiling anymore, just looks with honest and tired eyes. 

“Listen,” Stiles bites his lower lip and Derek feels sick, because he can’t tell if it’s just a habitual gesture or a fully intended distraction technique. If Stiles makes it on purpose, then it’s cruel and low of him to use that. But if it really is just his oral fixation, then Derek is a paranoid asshole. Either way, Derek feels his insides churn, but can’t stop starring. Stiles looks so intense and desperate “I really do want that book. But I’m not putting our pack in danger because of it. I do this for them. The book, and everything… whatever I have to. Come on, you know me.” 

“I’m not so sure about it anymore,” Derek says, because it is truth. 

He wants Stiles to shudder, to see him angry, pissed, mumbling indignant excuses. But there is just another dead smile that tugs on corners of Stiles’ lips. He closes his eyes minutely, and when he opens them again, there is only resignation. Because of lack of his trust, or maybe since Derek is too close to truth? Derek has lost his ability to read Stiles’ emotions at some point, or rather never really had it in a first place. 

“I know,” is all that Stiles has to say that. He takes his hand away and goes straight to the exit of the loft. Derek suppresses an urge to cover his cheek with his own palm to keep some of the rapidly disappearing heat of that lingering touch. But he lets out a quiet call. 

“Stiles. All these games-” even on the back of his head Derek can clearly see how Stiles rolls his eyes. He staggers a little. “I just wanted to say. Be careful.” 

Stiles does look back at that and sends him a much more real smile.

“I’m always careful. And- I have someone to watch my back.” 

Derek is standing on the same spot for a long time, after Stiles is gone. 

“I didn’t even have to clue him,” Peter walks out of the shadows like a fucking boogeyman. Derek was too engrossed in a conversation with Stiles to notice him before, but it was so Peter to appear like that, it was hardly a surprise. Derek glares at him as Peter slowly circles the room not coming closer and not raising his voice. “I have only smiled at Judith in a supermarket. In a meat department.” 

“Whatever Stiles says, I know where he has got these thoughts from.”

“One smile was enough to send her in a spree, biting people right and left. Stiles only ever needed a reason,” Peter continues in a pleased tone, not bothered with the interruption. “I haven’t got inside his head, I barely released what was always there.” 

That does sting. Possibly because Derek is so worried that it is true. He turns to Peter then and feels his eyes flashing and claws extracting.

“You! You got to him when he was vulnerable!” 

“Thanks to you,” Peter smiles widely seemingly unconcerned, even though they both know, that Derek is still much stronger than him. “I have always admired him and wondered how he deals with everything life throws his way, you know. Who could have thought that you will be the one to brake him in the end, Derek?” 

Derek drops his gaze and makes an uneven step back, even though they still have ten feet between them. 

“That’s not true. We were never… It was never a big thing.” 

“Well, maybe I exaggerated a little,” Peter agrees easily, shrugging with one shoulder. “I never said he was madly in love with you, let’s not be overdramatic. But he needed your support and you could not pick a better time to dump him, really Derek? No complains on my side, though. He would have never came to me, if it was not for you.”

Derek watches him apprehensively and Peter’s smile goes sharper and even wider. 

“Yes. He came to me, not vice versa, how you have though without any doubt.”

“You manipulate him.”

“A little. I don’t get to do it often, he learns quick and manipulates me back,” Peter sighs with fondness. 

“I’m warning you, Peter, if it’s just the book…”

“For the love of God, Derek. We know Judith and her merry man for what, five month? Stiles and I have a second anniversary in April. I have reserved a table already. The book of spells for werewolves is a treasure no doubt, but it’s incomparable, Stiles is beyond precious.” 

Derek snarls. As if he doesn’t know that himself. 

“I don’t know what have you filled his head with, but Scott and the others will notice soon. Lydia has already noticed something. If you think you can use Stiles’ weaknesses, his bond with a pack…”

“Stiles’ weaknesses are his main strengths,” Peter interrupts him again. “I will use them for sure, but not against him. More like against the cruel world, to protect what is valuable to us. Ironically enough, you are one of those things.” 

“Why are you here, then? Why are you telling all this to me?” Derek asks exasperated. 

“This is my retaliation,” Peter shrugs a little. He has finished a full circle and almost stands at the door. “Because you got to have him first. And because you screwed it up so badly, that he was even more broken afterwards, than before he came to you. You have always underestimated him, Derek. Too weak to take a bite, to be possessed, or even to be in your bed? Mistake on a mistake. You were never capable to see beyond the surface. He has so much more strength, than you give him credit for. He is so intelligent, resourceful, and loyal. And all of that is mine now. Because of you. I want you to remember this, Derek.” 

Peter almost steps out of the loft when he stops, and sends him a smirk over his shoulder. He is like a wicked echo of Stiles, who was standing in the same way there just minutes ago. 

“And he sucks gloriously. But you probably still remember that.” 

Of course Peter is not afraid of him. No claws can rip as deeply as his words did. Derek stands there frozen to a spot, helplessly looking at the closed door.


End file.
